Windows 8 users may now try out an early version of Metro-style Google Chrome by installing the browser’s developer build.

To access the Metro-style browser, users must installChromethroughthedevchannel, then set Chrome as the default browser. Once they do, the Chrome icon in the Windows 8 Start menu will change to show that it’s a Metro-style app.

The Metro-style version of Chrome is similar to its desktop counterpart, but it has larger tabs that are more conducive to touchscreens. Unlike Internet Explorer 10, Chrome shows all open tabs at all times — IE hides them until the user right-clicks or swipes upward on a touchscreen — so it’s a good option for users who need to quickly switch between tabs. The browser also supports Incognito mode and all Adobe Flash content, whereas Internet Explorer uses a whitelist of approved Flash content.

Chrome also supports some of Windows 8’s Metro features. Through the charms bar, users can share links with other apps, but the universal search function in Windows 8 doesn’t seem to work. The browser supports side-by-side snapping of other apps, so you can keep an eye on Twitter or e-mail as you surf the Web.

But as EdBottpointsout, Chrome violates Metro design principles with the browser’s right-click functionality. In Windows 8, right-clicking is supposed to do the same thing as swiping upward on a touchscreen, but that’s not the case in Metro-style Chrome. Swiping upward toggles full-screen browsing in Chrome, while right-clicking shows a pop-up context menu, as it does in the desktop browser.

I don’t have a tablet for testing Windows 8, but when using Splashtop’s Win8 MetroTestbedapp on the iPad, scrolling didn’t work in Chrome. If this is a problem with all tablets, I’m sure it will be fixed with future versions. But I also hope Google goes back and follows Metro design principles for right-clicks and upward swipes.

A few other nitpicks: There’s currently no way to send a Web page from Metro-style Chrome to the desktop, and the “New window” command opens a new tab instead. (Some sort of windowing function for Metro-style Chrome would be great for tab junkies.) Metro-style Chrome also has a “Pin to Start Screen” button that, at the moment, only crashes the browser.

If you’re running a preview version of Windows 8 and want to give Chrome a try, keep in mind that only the default browser may run as a Metro-style app, so Internet Explorer will only run on the desktop once you switch. To switch back to Metro-style IE, you must open the desktop version, go to “Internet Options,” click the “Programs” tab and click the link to “Make Internet Explorer the default browser.”

According to the independent web analytics firm, StatCounter Chrome has excelled as the world most popular browser with the highest browser usage share for the month of May 2012. But does that apply to Linux platform too? Is Chrome the best browser for Linux? The post compares the widely popular Mozilla Firefox browser version 4 with relatively new Google’s Chrome version 16, distinctly for Ubuntu!

Mozilla Firefox comes by default on Linux based distributions such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora etc. Naturally Ubuntu users opt for open source softwares. Technically, Opposed to Mozilla Firefox, Google’s Chrome is closed source; that makes Ubuntu users favour Firefox than Chrome, and that is understandable. Chromium, on the other hand is open source basis of Chrome. But unfortunately it lacks some key features like default PDF plug-in for viewing PDF files in the browser and Flash support. Ubuntu users, primarily supporters of open community also tend to have grudges towards Google, who is alleged to collect and aggregate data of Internet users that is later used by marketing agencies and by Google itself to increase the efficiency of its own marketing/advertising activities. Of course, many detest the fact of having their data sold for advertisement. But apart from that, Firefox outshines Chrome on Ubuntu machine for feature, stability and security. Now let’s investigate further, why Firefox remains dominant in the Ubuntu/ Linux sphere.

When people refer to the five major web browsers, they’re talking about Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. With under two percent market share according to most sources, Opera is by far the least major of the majors, if you’re talking about sheer usage. The venerable Norwegian browser is, however, a nice product with lots of features, and one that’s frequently among the first to add new stuff.

Today, it’s releasing Opera 12, a new version for Windows, OS X and Linux. There are no radical changes that would prompt vast numbers of happy users of other browsers to switch. (Which is not a surprise: The last game-changing innovation in browsing was probably Chrome’s minimalistic emphasis on speed when it debuted back in 2008.) But there are some meaningful new features, such as:

Support for Do Not Track, the standard that lets you prevent advertising networks and other companies from monitoring your wanderings around the web.

Widgets that let the little web-page previews in Opera’s Speed Dial page provide dynamic content–for instance, there’s a Gmail one which shows the most recent messages you’ve received. (This replaces Opera’s stand-alone widgets, which the company is discontinuing.)

Support for access to webcams, without requiring the use of Flash. (This will only get interesting when web-based services such as video chat apps support it, which they surely will once all major browsers are on board.)

Themes that let you add wallpaper-type backgrounds to the browser frame with a couple of clicks.

“Experimental” support for hardware-accelerated graphics. (It’s turned off by default, and is tricky to enable–Opera says that it may actually slow things down in some cases.)

Opera says that version 12 is faster than previous editions. And it’s turning off Opera Unite, a web-server-inside-the-browser which the company once over-optimistically said was going to change the web forever.

The browser also retains some unique features–most notably its Opera Turbo mode, which compresses web pages on the server side so they load more quickly over sluggish Internet connections.

Really, the only argument against giving Opera 12 a test drive is that not every company bothers to ensure that its wares are Opera-friendly, which leads to some web sites and services behaving strangely in it. (For instance, HipChat, a workgroup chat service we use here at TIME, mysteriously removes the spacing after all commas.)

That said, using the new version is reminding me of all the things I like about Opera. I’m going to keep on using it as my main browser, at least for a while–most often, I use Safari on Macs and Chrome on PCs–and will let you know if I have further thoughts.

Google To Release Chrome Beta for Windows 8 Testing

Google has announced that its Chrome browser will be available for testing on the Windows 8 Release Preview. The company plans to smooth out the user interface of the browser over the next couple of months, and will be seeking user feedback.

The test browser is just for the x86/x64 Windows 8 Release Preview, where it can run in both the desktop and Metro user interfaces of the operating system. While Windows 8 will be available on ARM-based tablets, the ability to run any other browser besides Internet Explorer on that OS, known as Windows Runtime, appears to be restricted by Microsoft.

The Chrome test browser will be released at the Google Chrome dev channel for Windows, according to Google’s blog post, which didn’t specify when.

WinRT ‘Won’t Run’ Other Browsers Google and Mozilla, which is also devising its Firefox browser for Windows 8, have both complained publicly that their browsers will not have access to the WinRT APIs necessary for their browsers to work as users would expect. Google went farther in its blog announcing the Chrome beta for Windows 8, by stating that its browser won’t run at all on WinRT.

“Chrome won’t run in WinRT, i.e. Windows 8 on ARM processors, as Microsoft is not allowing browsers other than Internet Explorer on the platform,” Google’s blog states.

An attorney with Mozilla suggested last month that Microsoft could be veering into possible antitrust litigation turf with the restrictions of WinRT. He cited Microsoft’s past antitrust supervision by the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission. Those bodies have faulted Microsoft for restricting API access and dominating the browser market via a Windows monopoly.

Microsoft hasn’t clarified the WinRT browser restriction matter publicly. While it has published a guide for a “Metro style enabled desktop browser” (Word doc) that software companies can use to build browsers for Windows 8, it appears that this guide only applies to x86/x64 systems, and not to WinRT systems.

The latest test version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 browser is called “platform preview 6.” It was distributed with the Windows 8 release preview that Microsoft announced at the end of last month. This new IE 10 version comes with Adobe Flash Player 11.3 built into the browser for use on both the desktop and Metro user interfaces. (Microsoft made no mention about whether its own Silverlight would similarly be supported in IE 10.). Another new aspect of IE 10 is that Microsoft’s “do not track” privacy option, first introduced in IE 9, is turned on by default.

Disagreement on Do Not Track The do-not-track issue has been kicked around by all of the browser makers, with little effect. Microsoft’s method depends on Web advertisers voluntarily honoring a request to not track user clickstream information. It’s just a technical solution, as there’s nothing legally binding on advertisers to behave in the proper way. Microsoft’s do-not-track approach sends an HTTP string to indicate preference, a method that’s currently under consideration at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Microsoft’s embrace of having a do-not-track mechanism turned on by default in the latest IE 10 has caused some controversy. It apparently conflicts with the current W3C working draft, according to a Wired report. The W3C appears to be leaning toward the idea of not enabling do-not-track functionality by default, which could put IE 10 out of compliance once the spec becomes a W3C recommendation.

In response, Brendon Lynch, Microsoft’s chief privacy officer, noted in a Friday blog post that the draft hasn’t been finalized yet and that Microsoft plans to work on it with various stakeholders “in the months ahead.” He didn’t acknowledge that Microsoft may be going against the evolving spec with IE 10 on the do-not-track issue, but he suggested that Microsoft would stay engaged in “good faith” efforts.

Mozilla’s also has a do-not-track approach for its Firefox browser that apparently uses a similar method as Microsoft’s approach. The Mozilla do-not-track system has been used by 8.6 percent of desktop users and 19 percent of mobile users, according to a May 17 Mozilla blog post.

Google has its own antitracking approach for Chrome called “Keep My Opt-Outs.” The Keep My Opt Outs method apparently works through a cookie opt-out procedure, but just for U.S. advertisers. The approach is vaguely described by Google here.

Google maintains multiple “channels,” or versions of Chrome, with escalating levels of stability and reliability. Dev is the least stable and earliest public build, but others include “Beta” and “Stable,” the last being Google’s tag for a final, production-grade edition.

After the new Dev version is installed, Chrome will run in both Windows 8′s traditional x86/64 “desktop” mode — the half that resembles Windows 7′s user interface (UI) — and in the tablet-, touch-centric “Metro” mode, where apps run in a full-screen, or at best, split view, with minimal UI gewgaws.

Under Microsoft’s rules, a browser must be chosen as the operating system’s default browser by the user to run in Metro.

Chrome in Metro also includes Flash, courtesy of Google’s long-bundling of the Adobe software with the browser. That puts Chrome in the same category as Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), which in Metro can also render Flash.

Even though Metro is supposed to be plug-in free, both Google and Microsoft have circumvented the rule by integrating Flash Player with their browsers.

“We think there should be equal access to platform capabilities and while we encourage healthy competition, believe there should be no circumstances that give any browser an unfair advantage,” said Asa Dotzler, director of Firefox, in an email reply to questions about IE10′s use of Flash last week. “[But] if other browsers can bring Flash or plug-ins in general to Metro, then it doesn’t seem to be a problem. But that isn’t clear at this time.”

Dotzler comment was made before Google rolled out the Metro preview of Chrome with Flash included.

Chrome’s deviations from the norm also include a decidedly different take on the Metro UI.

As others reported Monday — including ZDNet blogger Ed Bott — Google has seriously strayed from Microsoft’s Metro design guidelines for Chrome, to the point where it puts up a desktop-like context-sensitive menu in lieu of the standard Metro app bar, and adds a full drop-down menu accessed by clicking on an icon in the upper right.

Windows 8 users may now try out an early Metro UI version of Google Chrome by installing the browser’s developer build.

To access the Metro-style browser, users must installChromethroughthedevchannel, then set Chrome as the default browser. Once they do, the Chrome icon in the Windows 8 Start menu will change to show that it’s a Metro-style app.

The Metro-style version of Chrome is similar to its desktop counterpart, but it has larger tabs that are more conducive to touchscreens. Unlike Internet Explorer 10, Chrome shows all open tabs at all times – IE hides them until the user right-clicks or swipes upward on a touchscreen – so it’s a good option for users who need to quickly switch between tabs. The browser also supports Incognito mode and all Adobe Flash content, whereas Internet Explorer uses a whitelist of approved Flash content.

Chrome also supports some of Windows 8′s Metro features. Through the charms bar, users can share links with other apps, but the universal search function in Windows 8 doesn’t seem to work. The browser supports side-by-side snapping of other apps, so you can keep an eye on Twitter or email as you surf the web.

But as a ZDNet blogger points out, Chrome violates Metro design principles with the browser’s right-click functionality. In Windows 8, right-clicking is supposed to do the same thing as swiping upward on a touchscreen, but that’s not the case in Metro-style Chrome. Swiping upward toggles full-screen browsing in Chrome, while right-clicking shows a pop-up context menu, as it does in the desktop browser.

At the moment there’s no way to send a web page from Metro-style Chrome to the desktop, and the “New window” command opens a new tab instead. (Some sort of windowing function for Metro-style Chrome would be great for tab junkies.) Metro-style Chrome also has a “Pin to Start Screen” button that, at the moment, only crashes the browser.

If you’re running a preview version of Windows 8 and want to give Chrome a try, keep in mind that only the default browser may run as a Metro-style app, so Internet Explorer will only run on the desktop once you switch. To switch back to Metro-style IE, you must open the desktop version, go to “Internet Options,” click the “Programs” tab and click the link to “Make Internet Explorer the default browser.”

Google has rolled out experimental support for running Chrome in the Windows 8 Metro environment. The feature landed yesterday in the Chrome developer channel and is available for testing on the Windows 8 Release Preview.

As we reportedearlier this year, Mozilla and Google are working to bring their respective browsers to the Metro environment in Windows 8. Microsoft has created a special class of hybrid application specifically for browser vendors that will allow them to support both Metro and the traditional desktop with a single program.

The new application type, which is designated “Metro style enabled desktop browsers,” comes with a few caveats. In order to operate in the Metro environment, a browser will have to be configured as the platform’s default. Hybrid browsers that are not set as default will simply open in the traditional desktop when launched from the Metro environment.

I tested the Chrome developer build on an installation of the Windows 8 Release Preview in VirtualBox. Chrome works exactly as expected under the conventional desktop, with the same user interface and behavior that users are accustomed to under previous versions of Windows.

When I used the relevant button in the browser’s settings to make Chrome the platform’s default browser, Windows 8 displayed a simple prompt asking for confirmation. The prompt listed the installed hybrid browsers and indicated that Internet Explorer was my current default. It looks a lot like the equivalent dialog in Google’s Android platform that is used to specify which application should be the default handler for a given action.

After setting Chrome as the default browser, I was able to launch its Metro interface from the Metro environment by clicking its icon in the launcher. Chrome’s Metro front-end is clearly a work in progress—it doesn’t yet conform with the Metro look and feel. It currently uses a direct adaptation of Chrome’s standard appearance on the desktop.

Chrome’s distinctive curved tabs appear at the top of the screen, over the standard navigation toolbar. On the right-hand side of the browser’s Omnibar is a menu button. Instead of using Chrome’s standard wrench icon, it uses three horizontal lines.

It seems like Google is still determining how it wants to handle window management for its Metro flavor of Chrome. The user can have one regular browser window and one Incognito browser window open at the same time. The user can switch between them by clicking an icon in the top right-hand corner. The menu still has the standard New Window item, but it’s currently wired up to create a new tab.

In a nod to tablet users, the menu items are much larger in Metro mode, making them potentially easier to hit with a finger. Like a lot of aspects of the browser’s look and feel in Metro, this aspect looks like it’s a temporary measure while a more cohesive Metro-like design is being devised. The Omnibox autocompletion options are similarly inflated like the menu items.

The Metro support that Google is offering today in the Chrome developer channel is not bad for a first pass. It gets the job done and will give testers something to work with. We’re hopeful that we’ll see a more comprehensive and native-looking take from Google as their Metro implementation matures.

Google has been working to bring Chrome to its own Android mobile platform and has made it the centerpiece of its Web-centric Chrome OS. The search giant has largely kept the look and feel consistent across the various platforms and form factors that it supports with few platform-specific deviations. It’s not yet entirely clear how that philosophy will translate over the Metro environment.

Google maintains multiple “channels,” or versions of Chrome, with escalating levels of stability and reliability. Dev is the least stable and earliest public build, but others include “Beta” and “Stable,” the last being Google’s tag for a final, production-grade edition.

After the new Dev version is installed, Chrome will run in both Windows 8′s traditional x86/64 “desktop” mode — the half that resembles Windows 7′s user interface (UI) — and in the tablet-, touch-centric “Metro” mode, where apps run in a full-screen, or at best, split view, with minimal UI gewgaws.

Under Microsoft’s rules, a browser must be chosen as the operating system’s default browser by the user to run in Metro.

Chrome in Metro also includes Flash, courtesy of Google’s long-bundling of the Adobe software with the browser. That puts Chrome in the same category as Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), which in Metro can also render Flash.

Even though Metro is supposed to be plug-in free, both Google and Microsoft have circumvented the rule by integrating Flash Player with their browsers.

“We think there should be equal access to platform capabilities and while we encourage healthy competition, believe there should be no circumstances that give any browser an unfair advantage,” said Asa Dotzler, director of Firefox, in an email reply to questions about IE10′s use of Flash last week. “[But] if other browsers can bring Flash or plug-ins in general to Metro, then it doesn’t seem to be a problem. But that isn’t clear at this time.”

Dotzler comment was made before Google rolled out the Metro preview of Chrome with Flash included.

Chrome’s deviations from the norm also include a decidedly different take on the Metro UI.

As others reported Monday — including ZDNet blogger Ed Bott — Google has seriously strayed from Microsoft’s Metro design guidelines for Chrome, to the point where it puts up a desktop-like context-sensitive menu in lieu of the standard Metro app bar, and adds a full drop-down menu accessed by clicking on an icon in the upper right.

Google maintains multiple “channels,” or versions of Chrome, with escalating levels of stability and reliability. Dev is the least stable and earliest public build, but others include “Beta” and “Stable,” the last being Google’s tag for a final, production-grade edition.

After the new Dev version is installed, Chrome will run in both Windows 8′s traditional x86/64 “desktop” mode — the half that resembles Windows 7′s user interface (UI) — and in the tablet-, touch-centric “Metro” mode, where apps run in a full-screen, or at best, split view, with minimal UI gewgaws.

Under Microsoft’s rules, a browser must be chosen as the operating system’s default browser by the user to run in Metro.

Chrome in Metro also includes Flash, courtesy of Google’s long-bundling of the Adobe software with the browser. That puts Chrome in the same category as Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), which in Metro can also render Flash.

Even though Metro is supposed to be plug-in free, both Google and Microsoft have circumvented the rule by integrating Flash Player with their browsers.

“We think there should be equal access to platform capabilities and while we encourage healthy competition, believe there should be no circumstances that give any browser an unfair advantage,” said Asa Dotzler, director of Firefox, in an email reply to questions about IE10′s use of Flash last week. “[But] if other browsers can bring Flash or plug-ins in general to Metro, then it doesn’t seem to be a problem. But that isn’t clear at this time.”

Dotzler comment was made before Google rolled out the Metro preview of Chrome with Flash included.

Chrome’s deviations from the norm also include a decidedly different take on the Metro UI.

As others reported Monday — including ZDNet blogger Ed Bott — Google has seriously strayed from Microsoft’s Metro design guidelines for Chrome, to the point where it puts up a desktop-like context-sensitive menu in lieu of the standard Metro app bar, and adds a full drop-down menu accessed by clicking on an icon in the upper right.